Tag Archives: Taliban

It’s my assertion that whenever “The Enemy” wishes to enter peace talks, it’s “The West” that refuses terms and responds with violence. The CIA assassination of TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud is the most recent example of this long standing policy of blatant aggression.

The Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently invited Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan for high level, direct peace talks. Days before the meeting and in direct violation of Pakistani sovereignty, the CIA assassinated Mehsud along with 25 other people in a drone bombing in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of northern Pakistan.

The context for the drone strike has to raise the question of whether John Brennan, head of the CIA, is deliberately attempting to forestall any peace in the region. Why was Hakimullah Mehsud killed when he agreed to peace talks?

In June 2011 Radio 4′s Today Show had a very interesting discussion withMichael Semple, the former Deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan and a key proponent of talking to the Taliban. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:

Western military theory is based primarily on Carl von Clausewitz’steachings, what is taught in every single military academy is;

“War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means”

The Afghan War Logsshowed the true nature of the Afghan War, one that the media doesn’t report on.

Is it democracy that keeps western nations at war? Or the armies and the vested interests now massed behind them?

A burgeoning defence establishment, backed by large corporate interests, would one day employ so many people as to corrupt the political system. (His original draft even referred to a “military-industrial-congressional complex”.) This lobby, said Eisenhower, could become so huge as to “endanger our liberties and democratic processes”.

I wonder what Eisenhower would make of today’s America, with a military grown from 3.5 million people to 5 million. The western nations face less of a threat to their integrity and security than ever in history, yet their defence industries cry for ever more money and ever more things to do.

The cold war strategist, George Kennan, wrote prophetically:

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial complex would have to remain, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented.”

That adversary is Islam and virtually every single country that has a large Muslim population.

The war on terror has fulfilled this prophecy fears, as Britain has followed America’s lead and sunk into a swamp of kidnapping, torture and imprisonment without trial.

The belligerent posture of the US and Britain towards the Muslim world has fostered antagonism and moderate threats in response. The bombing of extremist targets in Pakistan is an invitation for terrorists to attack us, and then a need for defence against such attack. A self fulfilling perpetual cycle of violence.

Meanwhile, the opportunity cost of appeasing the complex is astronomical.

“Every gun that is made is a theft from those who hunger”

For each long range cruise missile and bomber built a hospital ward and a classroom in Britain doesn’t get built.

As long as bullets are fired in war, there will be a company profiting from their sale, with the invention of the global war against terrorism, it provides a blank cheque opportunity for the defence industry – the military industrial complex – the scenery maybe variable – Iraq or Afghanistan – the money source remains the constant and the end result remains constant.

Yet your average Daily Mail reading Britain will be fed the myth that “they hate us for our freedom & democracy”.

It’s because our militarised media is so strong that no one will believe that it’s possible that our armed forces are capable of committing such evil acts such as breaking into people’s homes, killing them while they slept and then burning their bodies.

It becomes hard to be taken seriously if you are talking peace, yet continue to kill the people you want to bring to the negotiating table.

War is a conduit to achieve a political objective, if you have no political objective to achieve, or the remit is changed regularly as has been the case in Afghanistan, then you are in a perpetual state of war, a never ending war, that has no end game in sight.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, Mi-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been “exaggerated” by the western powers.

Eric S. Margolis writes in the Toronto Sun — THE London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.

I’ve been an IISS member for over 20 years. IISS’s reports are always authoritative but usually cautious and diplomatic, sometimes dull. However, two weeks ago the IISS issued an explosive report on Afghanistan that is shaking Washington and its Nato allies.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been “exaggerated” by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has “ballooned” out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using uncharacteristically blunt language, is “a long-drawn-out disaster”.

Just recently, CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 50 members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yet US President Barack Obama has tripled the number of US soldiers there to 120,000 to fight Al Qaeda.

The IISS report goes on to acknowledge the presence of western troops in Afghanistan is actually fuelling national resistance. I saw the same phenomena during the 1980’s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Interestingly, the portion of the report overseen by the former MI-6 Secret Intelligence Service deputy chief, Nigel Inskster, finds little Al Qaeda threat elsewhere, notably in Somalia and Yemen. Yet Washington is beefing up its attacks on both turbulent nations.

Abandoning its usual discretion, IISS said it was issuing these warnings because the deepening war in Afghanistan was threatening the west’s security interests by distracting its leaders from the world financial crisis and Iran, and burning through scarce funds needed elsewhere.

The IISS’s findings are a direct challenge to Obama, Britain’s new prime minister, David Cameron, and other US allies with troops in Afghanistan. This report undermines their rational used to sustain the increasingly unpopular conflict. It will certainly convince sceptics that the real reason for occupation of Afghanistan has to do with oil, excluding China from the region, and keeping watch on nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The report also goes on to propose an exit strategy from the Afghan War. Western occupation troops, IISS proposes, should be sharply reduced and confined to Kabul and northern Afghanistan, which is mostly ethnic Tajik and Uzbek.

Southern Afghanistan – Taliban country – should be vacated by Western forces and left alone. Taliban would be allowed to govern its own half of the nation until some sort of loose, decentralised federal system can be implemented. This was, in fact, pretty much the way Afghanistan operated before the 1979 Soviet invasion.

Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan is turning against the increasingly wobbly western occupation forces. The US-installed Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, openly prepares for direct peace talks with Taliban and its allies – in spite of intense opposition from the US, Britain and Canada.

Pro-government Afghan forces are increasingly demoralised. Only the Tajik and Uzbek militias, and Afghan Communist Party, both supported by India, Russia and Iran, want to keep fighting the Pashtun Taliban.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar last week proclaimed the western occupiers were rapidly losing the war. He may well be correct. Nothing is going right for the US-backed Kabul regime or its western defenders. Even the much-ballyhooed US offensive at Marjah, designed to smash Taliban resistance, was an embarrassing fiasco. Civilian casualties from US bombing continue to mount.

Europeans are fed up with the Afghan war. Polls report 60% of Americans think the war not worth fighting.

The IISS bombshell comes on the heels of the most dramatic part of the British Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the invasion of Iraq. Baroness Manningham-Buller the former head of Britain’s domestic security service, MI-5, testified that the Iraq War was generated by a farrago of lies and faked evidence from the Blair government. What we call “terrorism” is largely caused by the western invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, she testified.

How much longer will the indigenous population of Afghanistan and British troops be slaughtered and maimed in this never ending war to support a corrupt president whom the majority of Afghans feel was imposed on them by an invading and occupying force.

Hamidullah says he is a member of the Taliban fighting against Operation Moshtarak – a joint Afghan-Nato offensive centred around Marjah, in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.
He told Al Jazeera that the foreign troops’ offensive is not succeeding, as they often kill civilians instead of Taliban fighters.

As a result, he says the Afghan people now support the Taliban more than before.

His statements come after a Nato air strike on what was assumed to be a bus carrying Taliban fighters on Sunday, killed 33 Afghan civilians.

In previous, so called wars that are fought on “conventional” terms, you always had a front line which would move forwards and backwards depending on the tactics and opposing forces wore recognisable uniforms.

In Afghanistan there is no front line and the “enemy” do not wear uniforms, they have the ability to conceal themselves into their surroundings whenever they wish, this is the hallmarks of a Guerilla Army, tactics the West so admirably taught an earlier generation to fight against the Russian Red Army that was occupying Afghanistan.

On the simple basis of historical precedent, this “war” will never be won on a military basis, our inept politicians must find a way to withdraw, without any further losses of life to the people of Afghanistan or to the troops who are dying for a cause they cannot comprehend.

The Taliban “can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other”, the new bishop for the Armed Forces has said.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph The Rt Rev Stephen Venner argued against demonising the Taliban and said the attitude taken towards them had been “too simplistic”.

The Church of England bishop was recently commissioned in his new role by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He told the newspaper:

“We’ve been too simplistic in our attitude towards the Taliban.

“There’s a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the West could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation.

“The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other.”

The bishop said he admired the sacrifices made by the British forces fighting in Afghanistan and he said some of the Taliban’s methods were not honourable or acceptable.

Bishop Venner said all the people of Afghanistan, including the Taliban, needed to be involved in a solution to the country’s problems.

The Akh wonders how long it will be before the pro war British hawks get their claws into the Bishop and severely rebuke him for his comments and force him to make an apology.

UPDATE

Within moments of this message being aired, you could almost sense that their would be a severe backlash from the pro war British Hawks, any narrative that dares to oppose or step out of line of the simplistic official narrative of “Good V Evil” will be severely rebuked.

As the bishop was seen to be grovelling as he backtracked over his previous message with the usual “It was taken out of context” and “I’m not trying to support the Taliban, what they are doing is evil.” as he said to the BBC.

At a time when British Muslims are pressurised to distance themselves from their fellow Muslims around the world who fight against invading western forces, often with the tried and tested formulae of labelling any resistance to imperialist schemes as being a distorted and “extreme” version of Islam, one which all “moderate” British Muslim groups are forced to condemn.

Yet Tony Bliar will openly admit that he lied and misled the British people to launch illegal wars and there is no widespread condemnation for his actions, his actions will never be viewed as hateful or extreme.

"Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil & believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And Allah hears & knows all things."
(The Qur'an, Al-Baqara, 2: 256)

“Political authority & religion are kin brothers, neither would stand but by its companion; because religion is the foundation of political power & its pillar, & political power is the guardian of religion; political power is not established with a foundation & religion cannot be implemented without authority.”
- Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

"War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means" - Clausewitz

"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)."
(The Qur'an, Al Hujurat, 49: 13)